The Digestibility of Pennisetum purpureum Cv. Thailand Concerning Cowdung Supplementation and Arbuscula Mycorrhizal Inoculation

Abstract

Manure usually consists of a mixture of livestock feces and urine, which also contains macro elements such as Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), and Calcium (Ca) as well as the microelement Manganese (Mn). This study aims to determine the in-vitro influence of the digestibility of dry matter, digestibility of organic matter, crude protein digestibility, and crude fiber digestibility on elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) cv. Thailand supplemented with cow feces and inoculated with AMF on ultisol soil . We used a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 5 treatments and 4 replications. The treatments were A administration of cow feces fertilizer (5 tons/ha) + fertilizer N, P, K, B cow feces fertilizer (5 tons/ha) + AMF (10 g/clump), C cow feces fertilizer (10 tons/ha) + AMF (10 g/clump), D cow feces fertilizer (15 tons/ha) + AMF (10 g/clump) and E cow feces fertilizer (20 tons/ha) + AMF (10 g/clump). We observed some parameters such as the digestibility of Dry Matter (DM), Organic Matter (OM), Crude Protein (CP), and Crude Fiber (CF) in-vitro. The results showed that the administration of cow feces fertilizers gave significantly different results (p<0.05) on digestibility (DM, OM, CP, and CF). Average DM digestibility (57.15-57.69), OM digestibility (57.38-58.72), CP digestibility (60.85-61.13), and CF digestibility (60.08-61.03%). We concluded that the application of 5 tons/ha of cow feces fertilizer +10 g of AMF resulted in relatively the same digestibility of DM, OM, CP, and CF so that it could replace 100% of N, P, and K fertilizers.